Making Photo and Page Masks For My Memories

Today, I learned how to make masks to use in My Memories Suite.  It all started with a post on the Facebook group.  One of the members posted a page that had been created in another program using a page mask and wanted to know if she could do the same thing in My Memories and apply paper from a specific kit to the mask. I had been playing with creating .svg files to use in MM so, I thought I’d see if I could make a mask as well.

So, I broke out the crayons and scribbled a quick frame on a piece of white paper.

Then I scanned it and imported it into Make the Cut using the pixel trace tool.  I had to fiddle with the settings quite a bit, but I finally settled on using the luminescence setting with a threshold of about 225.  I then exported the mask as a .svg file and saved it into: C:\Program Files\My Memories Suite\Components\Shapes\Users.

I opened a new page in My Memories 4, added a photo, then used the shape tool to add the .svg mask over the top of the photo.  I filled the shape with blue paper and here’s the result:

Papers for this page and the next page are from My Kid bundle.

Next, I got to thinking about layering multiple masks, so I ran the frame through make the cut again, this time setting the threshold to about 190 (I can’t remember the exact number) and the resulting frame had a lot more transparency.  I layered that over the first frame, filled it in with a darker paper and ended up with this:

If you’re going to try a frame this complex, be aware that it takes a LOT of memory and your system will bog down.  So far, the only way I’ve been able to free up the memory again is to exit My Memories and start it back up.

Next, I thought I would try torn paper, so I tore The middle out of a piece of scrap paper and ran it through MTC’s pixel trace utility. Here’s how it turned out:

And another:

And finally, I decided to make a complete page mask.  One thing that’s really nice about using .svg files in My Memories is that you can shrink or stretch them to fit any page or picture and as long as you do the resizing before you add the digital paper, there’s no stretching or skewing of the paper.  Here’s a rectangular page I made from my square page mask.

The papers and embellishments on this page are from the Spring Fling designer pack.

I did not have the memory problems with this page that I had with the layered masks, which confirms my theory that the more nodes and vectors (jagged edges and holes) you have in a frame, the more memory it’s going to take up when you use it.

If you don’t want to shell out the money for Make the Cut, I found a free online svg conversion tool here:  http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-svg.  It’s not as flexible as Make the Cut, but hey, it’s free and it worked very well on the images I tested.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of My Memories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Easter Chick

MyMemories 4 isn’t just for scrapbooking.  You can make other things with it too.

This week, I decided to make an Easter card using the Easter pack that came with the MyMemories software.  Since there isn’t an egg in the provided shapes, I loaded a circle into the shape editor and made my own egg shape.  It was really pretty easy to do.

I created the apertures for the iris folding by layering two egg shapes for each egg, one slightly smaller than the other.  I colored the larger bottom layers pink and purple and left the top layers white.  After printing the card, I cut out the white egg apertures and added the iris folding.  The papers for the iris folding are also from the Easter paper pack.  After completing the iris folding, I added pink and purple glitter paper behind the openings.

I printed two copies of the chick and layered them using foam tape.  The bottom layer of the chick is the complete image and the top layer is just the top and bottom shell and the bow.

Come Run With Me Beside The Sea…

Here’s another page I made with MM4.  This one is for this week’s challenge on the MyMemories blog.  The challenge is to use papers and embellishments from the Hello February Add-on which is a free download.

Cute couple, don’t you think?

MyMemories Suite 4: Ripped Photos Feature

One of the new features in MyMemories Suite 4 is the ability to simulate a torn edge on photos and digital papers.  It’s super easy to do and I love the look!    There’s a great Tutorial on the MyMemories blog describing how to tear photos and pages.  After watching it, I was able to put together page 2 of my beach trip album in no time at all.

MyMemories Suite 4 Right Out of the (Virtual) Box

(originally posted 3/16/13 on Serendipitycards.blogspot.com)

Like a lot of people, I have hundreds, if not thousands of digital photos sitting on my hard drive and on CDs. I’ve often thought about doing something with them, but that was as far as I got. I know there are several Digital Scrapbooking programs available to choose from, but most don’t have all the features I want…

… until I found MyMemories Suite 4.  I first became interested in MyMemories Suite when I saw that it was listed as the number one digital scrapbooking program on Top 10 Reviews.  After taking a quick look at the feature list, I knew I wanted to try it out, so when Liz from MyMemories asked me if I would evaluate their software, I jumped at the chance.

First, let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  Skip this paragraph if you don’t like geek-speak.  I installed MyMemories Suite 4 on an older computer (purchased in 2007) with a Windows Vista 32 bit operating system, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor and 4gb of memory.  According to the software requirements, 2gb is the minimum, but you really need 4gb unless you like tearing your hair out in frustration because your system is running so slow. I know this because a couple years ago when I only had 2gb of memory, I installed MyMemories 3 and quickly gave up because my system would grind to a halt whenever I tried to run it. (Note: Up to and including Windows 7, the 32 bit versions of Windows operating systems max out at just under 4gb of memory, so if you already have that much, there’s no point adding more).  Happily, I have only experiencing minor slow downs running MyMemories Suite 4 with my current configuration and that’s with several other applications running at the same time.

Installation:

After downloading the 120mb install file, I was eager to get started.  I was a little bit annoyed that there was an additional 4gb (yes, that’s Gigabytes) that needed to be downloaded. That took about an hour and a half.  Fortunately, I had some grocery shopping to do this morning so I left while it was downloading.  After that, the installation continued without a hitch.

Running MyMemories Suite 4:

When you start MyMemories Suite you will be presented with four options: Create Album From Designer Template, Design Your Own, Browse More Content Online or Open an existing album.  I chose to create a new album using the Birthday Celebration template.  I left the page arrangement as-is and chose the pick-and-click method of filling the album.  After naming the album and clicking OK, it took several seconds for it to create all the pages.

The next step is to add photos, which is quite simple.  Just open the Photo tab on in the Resource Gallery on the left side of the MyMemories Suite screen and select a folder from your system.  From there, it’s an easy drag and drop into the photo boxes on the page. When you drop a photo into a box you have several easy options for zooming and placement. If you use a pre-made template, you can create and populate an album in minutes.  Here’s the first page from my granddaughter’s birthday album (isn’t  she cute?).

Of course, you can also create an album entirely from scratch.  After working with the designer templates, I decided to step out on my own.  I wanted to create an album of the beach trip I took with my daughter-in-law and granddaughters last Summer, so I went to the MyMemories website and searched for a beach-themed kit.  I found several and added them to my wish list and ultimately decided on the Oceanside Pack by Trixie Scraps Designs.

Creating my own page took considerably longer and I was slightly alarmed at first because I couldn’t find my newly purchased pack.  Suffice it to say, reading the user’s guide, as boring as that may sound, would have saved me a some time and frustration.  I highly recommend it!  To get a good understanding of how the elements in designer packs are categorized, open Help and read the following section: Using MyMemories Suite > Background Papers > Adding Background Papers > Purchased Backgrounds  (Yes, you can read the user guide online and check out all the features before purchasing the software – they also have a YouTube Channel with lots of tutorials).  After you see how the papers are categorized, you can apply that same principle to the other page elements.

Here’s the first page of my beach trip album.  I think it turned out pretty good for someone who is new to digital scrapbooking and has only done a little paper scrapbooking.

That’s it for today!